This invention relates to a secure locker system, in particular an intelligent locker system, and especially to such a system for use with a “shopping from home” system, that is to say an inresidence IT (Information Technology) system.
Electronically assisted shopping is growing rapidly as consumers seek to maximise their free time and remove the drudgery from shopping, particularly for everyday items but also for hard to find speciality items. With the continual development of Internet based services both for selection and payment, an area restraining growth of these services is the delivery aspect. There is little point in saving time on the grocery shopping if you have to wait at home for the delivery person, even if a certain time window has been allocated for the delivery. One proposal in this respect has been to have the products delivered to a central point, sometimes at a predetermined time, for example workplace shopping, whereas another proposal is to provide a free-standing secure storage area, attached to the home (residence), in which goods can be left. Being only infrequently used, this latter storage proposal represents wasted space for much of the time and, in any event, represents a compromise since one unit cannot be used for dry, chilled, frozen products, and items such as dry cleaning, without subdivision into separate appropriate compartments, and probably representing even more wasted space.